The Ottawa Redblacks made the playoffs for the first time since 2018. However, following a 58-38 loss to the Toronto Argonauts in the first round of the playoffs the Redblacks have announced they will part ways with Barron Miles, their defensive coordinator for the last two seasons. This decision may have more to do with things that have nothing to do with football and may be one of those rare occurrences where a team is trying to allow the coach to focus on himself and his family first.
For those that follow Coach Miles on social media, he has not been shy about some health issues his family has faced. This move will allow him to have more time to cater to his family’s needs and hopefully help get their health back in order before an eventual return to coaching when he and his family are ready. Coach Miles is a well-respected person and watching from afar I personally have only grown to respect him even more as this season has progressed, I am positive I am not the only one who feels this way. From the bottom of my heart, I wish him and his family nothing but good health and happiness going forward. The coach has told us he intends to keep coaching when the right time comes for him and his family. He mentions football being tied to his family for many years and something that is engrained in their lives.
What is Next for the Redblacks?
With that in mind I wanted to look at potential candidates to fill the Redblacks Defensive Coordinator role in 2025 and beyond. When Dyce has hired his coaching staff in the past, he has leaned heavily on coaches he worked with in the past. On this list are many coaches he has worked with in the past, as well as some who have ties to others within the organization, from General Manager Shawn Burke to Director of US Scouting Alex Russell, and others. Josh Bell the Defensive Backs Coach for the Toronto Argonauts has already interviewed for the position, but I wanted to look at some names who could receive some interest from the team.
In-House Candidate
Alex Suber, Defensive Backs Coach
Alex Suber is in my opinion a future head coach. Having played and coached all three phases of the game Suber is uniquely equipped to eventually serve as a Head Coach, however his next step could be as the defensive coordinator for Ottawa. In 2024, Suber returned for his fourth year in Ottawa after a one year hiatus as the cornerbacks coach at his Alma Mater. During his time in Ottawa, he has overseen defensive backs for three seasons, and wide receivers for one season.
If he receives a promotion, it would not be his first time as a coordinator. In 2015 he began his coaching career as the Defensive Backs Coach/Special Teams Coordinator at George S. Middleton High School. In 2016 he was hired by Westwood High School as the Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs Coach. In 2017 Bethune Cookman University brought him on for his first season coaching at the college level. He returned to his roots assisting with defensive backs, and special teams.
Once again, he saw a promotion in 2018 being hired by Lyon College as the Defensive Coordinator/Secondary Coach under long time CFL Coach Casey Creehan. He had overlapped with Creehan in Winnipeg, and Edmonton while still playing. During this season Lyon finished 4-7 with 4 losses by 6 points or less. His defense held opponents to a 33% conversion rate on 3rd down, and 55% conversion rate on 4th down. They produced 39 sacks, and 16 forced fumbles, but allowed 32.9 points per game.
In 2019 the Redblacks brought him in to oversee defensive backs. This was the year Ottawa signed Brandin Dandridge as a rookie. In 2022 he oversaw receivers and helped Jaelon Acklin to a CFL East All Star nomination. He remained with the team until the 2023 season, taking a one year hiatus as the cornerbacks coach at Middle Tennessee State. In this one season he helped Tyrell Raby, Marvae Myers-Glover, and Deonte Stanley to career years. He returned to Ottawa in 2024 and oversaw a unit that saw two players named CFL East All Stars in Ardarius Pickett, and Damon Webb. Webb quickly became one of the most dominant halfbacks in the 2024 season.
What could be the more important factor is that Suber has worked under or alongside Bob Dyce for five years. Playing for him in 2015, then coaching alongside him from 2019-2022, and under him in 2024. Dyce clearly trusts Suber and brought him back for a reason. Could the next step be to oversee Ottawa’s entire defense in 2025? I personally hope so.
Recent CFL Defensive Coordinators
Brent Monson, Former Calgary Stampeders Defensive Coordinator
Brent Monson is not a candidate that has many ties to the organization currently. He has not coached with Bob Dyce, or under Shawn Burke. However, there are not many candidates out there with the resume of Monson. Monson has spent his entire professional coaching career with Calgary, but it was announced his contract would not be renewed in 2025 after 15 seasons with the Stampeders.
Working his way up the ranks and proving himself by often pulling double duty for the Stampeders he spent ten years as a position coach or strength and conditioning coach before being promoted to defensive coordinator in 2019. During the decade preceding his promotion, Monson coached linebackers, defensive line, and running backs for Calgary and helped many players to All-Star nominations.
However, his best work may have come as the Defensive Coordinator. In his first three seasons in this role Calgary was a combined 32-18. In his first season his unit produced 26 interceptions, including 12 by DeShaun Amos, and Tre Roberson. They also scored 3 touchdowns on interception returns alone. They also produced 35 sacks including 22 by Cordarro Law, Chris Casher, and Mike Rose. The unit also accounted for 13 forced fumbles, while holding opposing teams to just over 22 points per game.
In 2021 it was Stefan Banks, Shawn Lemon, and Mike Rose leading the pass rush combining for 19 of the team’s 32 sacks. They were not able to produce as many turnovers in 2021, but they held opponents to just 18.7 points per game. In 2022 it was more of the same, they allowed 22 points per game. Shawn Lemon collected 14 sacks, while Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund, Mike Rose, and Folarin Orimolade produced another 21 sacks. The team as a whole accounted for 56 sacks, 19 interceptions, 18 forced fumbles, and 13 recoveries.
Since 2022 things have slowly fallen apart for Calgary on offense and the defense has been asked to stop offenses while watching their own offense fail to sustain drives or score touchdowns in key moments. Despite this we still saw Cameron Judge, and Micah Awe put up career years in 2023 as they combined for an asinine 224 tackles, 4 sacks, 8 interceptions, 3 forced fumbles, 1 recovery and 1 defensive touchdown. Mike Rose also managed 11 sacks, and the Stamps finished with 44 sacks, 17 interceptions, 18 forced fumbles, 11 recoveries and 2 defensive touchdowns on the year. The defense allowed just over 26 points per game good for sixth, but the offense only scored 22.9 per game good for fifth in the league.
In 2024 the unit saw a drop in their production, with 32 sacks, 15 interceptions, and 11 forced fumbles. They still managed to score two touchdowns of their own. IFL Monson does not land a coordinator role watch for him to potentially join the Argonauts or Roughriders in some capacity for 2025. He has worked with Ryan Dinwiddie, and Cory Mace in the past.
Mark Washington, Former Hamilton Tiger-Cats Defensive Coordinator
Mark Washington was recently let go of his position as defensive coordinator/DB Coach, and Assistant Head Coach after spending the last 5 CFL seasons with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The long-time CFL defensive back spent 11 seasons with the Montreal Alouettes, and BC Lions before retiring and immediately entering the coaching ranks with the team he finished his career with, the BC Lions.
He initially would spend the next six seasons as the defensive backs coach for the BC Lions. In his first season he helped Korey Banks, Dante Marsh, and even now former Redblacks Defensive Coordinator Barron Miles to West Division All-Star nominations. Also on that roster are current Edmonton Elks interim Head Coach Jarious Jackson, Interim General Manager Geroy Simon, and future NFL player Cameron Wake. Talk about an impressive group.
In 2009 Miles and Banks again made the All-Star list as Miles finished his career on a high note blocking his record setting 13th kick, and his 66th interception before retiring and entering coaching himself as the defensive assistant for the Lions for the next two seasons. Under Thompson’s watch Marsh would make the list three more times all in successive seasons, Banks made it five straight seasons, Ryan Phillips would be nominated for the list three more times before finding himself as the replacement of Thompson in his role as defensive backs coach when he was promoted to defensive coordinator.
After taking over as the Lion’s DC the team would go 44-46 making the playoffs four of five seasons. However, the hallmark of his tutelage with the Lions as a DC came in the playoffs where his unit gave up 207 points in five games, an average of 41 points per game. After the 2018 season he would join the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the same capacity as Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs Coach. At the time Shawn Burke was a member of the Ti-Cats front office as a Senior Director of Player Personnel and Co-Manager of Football Operations, and Tommy Condell was the Offensive Coordinator/Wide Receivers Coach. Also on that team were Jeremiah Masoli, Bralon Addison, Jaelon Acklin, Lorenzo Mauldin IV, and the recently retired Jackson Bennett.
In this first season, Washington’s defense led the league with just 344 points. They also collected combined 54 sacks, 22 interceptions, 15 force fumbles, and 12 recoveries. Three members of his secondary, and six total members of the defense made the CFL East All-Star list the 15-3 Ti-Cats placed a total of 13 players on the 27 man list in 2019. In 2021 they found similar success with another 6 defensive players on the divisional All-Star list, including another 3 more members of the secondary. In 14 games they produced 17 interceptions, 31 sacks, and 6 fumble recoveries.
After the 2021 season, Washington was actually one of the finalists for the Redblacks Head Coaching position, when Burke was hired as the General Manager. Ultimately Ottawa hired Paul LaPolice and Washington remained in Hamilton for the next two and a half years. From 2022-2024 Washington’s unit produced 42 interceptions, 100 sacks, 11 forced fumbles, and 6 recoveries in 48 games before he was fired, and replaced by Chris Jones. Washington has not yet been hired by another team but has likely the strongest ties of any current candidate to the Redblacks staff, and roster. He could end up being one of the most likely candidates if the team decides to hire from outside the team. Much like last year when they replaced Khari Jones with Tommy Condell, this could be an opportunity to bring in an experienced coordinator without having to outbid other teams for his services, unless of course Calgary offers him as well.
Position Coaches in Line for Promotion
Greg Quick, Linebackers Coach for Montreal Alouettes
Greg Quick has been coaching at some capacity for over 45 years now. He has served as a linebackers coach, offensive line coach, defensive backs coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and head coach along the way. During his time in the CFL, however, he has been given just one season as a defensive coordinator. It happened to come in 2015 with the Saskatchewan Roughriders when Bob Dyce finished the season as the interim head coach before joining the Redblacks the following season.
During this one season, the unit gave up 561 points which is obviously not a good look for any first time coordinator. The caveat being that the team had a defensive minded head coach before Dyce took over in Corey Chamblin. The unit managed to produce 10 interceptions, 31 sacks, 13 forced fumbles, and 13 recoveries scoring 4 defensive touchdowns on the season during a year in which the offense only mustered 430 points and threw 21 interceptions, and fumbled 22 times, recovering just 8. After this one season Quick was let go along with the rest of the staff.
Having joined the Roughriders after one season with the Alouettes as their linebackers coach, he ended up returning to Montreal twice more in that role since, spending just one season away from Montreal in 2018 when he joined the Toronto Argonauts. This meant he not only overlapped with Dyce, but he also coached under Barron Miles while they were both with Montreal, and he also directly coached Adarius Pickett for two seasons. In 2018 he and Alex Russell were both with the Argonauts as well.
While Quick was only given one season as a defensive coordinator at the CFL level, he spent seven seasons calling defensive plays at the college level. He also served as an offensive play caller for five years, and a head coach for 16 seasons. He is well qualified for the position, and has strong ties to the coaching staff, front office, and roster as well. It would not shock me to hear his name as a finalist for the opening with the Redblacks in 2025.
Richie Hall, Defensive Assistant with Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Richie Hall is a former CFL defensive back who spent nine seasons in the league split between Calgary and Saskatchewan before joining the coaching ranks back in 1994. Since ’94 he has been coaching in the CFL non-stop. He began in Saskatchewan as the Secondary coach for the Roughriders in 1994, a role he served in for seven seasons before receiving his first chance to call defensive plays in 2001.
Saskatchewan promoted Hall to Defensive Coordinator in ’01 a position he held for eight years before being hired as a head coach by the Edmonton Eskimos. During his time with the Roughriders in this capacity, he was regarded as one of the top defensive minds in the league. He also helped lead his team to a Grey Cup championship in 2007 just one season before he would get the call as a Head Coach.
After 19 years with the Roughriders over a 22 year stretch, he was hired as the Edmonton Eskimos head coach in 2009. On this roster was the current Alouettes Head Coach Jason Maas, a former quarterback. During Hall’s first season as the head coach, he had Jim Daley, a longtime CFL coach, as the defensive coordinator, but in 2010 he was hired as a special teams coordinator by the Roughriders, a team he had previously spent time with as a defensive coordinator, and head coach. With Daley gone, Hall assumed the duties of Defensive Coordinator as well.
During his one season pulling double duties, his unit produced 21 interceptions, 31 sacks, 9 fumble recoveries, and 4 defensive touchdowns. After his two-season hiatus he returned to his post as Defensive Coordinator for the Roughriders where he would win his third Grey Cup as a Roughrider in 2013. He would spend just one more season with the Roughriders before moving on to Winnipeg as their Defensive Coordinator.
He would spend the next nine seasons as the defensive coordinator with the Blue Bombers before he was demoted by the Blue Bombers. He served as a defensive consultant in 2024. He should be a hot commodity as a potential defensive coordinator for both the Redblacks and Stampeders or any other CFL team looking for a defensive coordinator. During his second stint as the defensive coordinator for the Roughriders he overlapped with Bob Dyce all four seasons before moving on to Winnipeg. If the Redblacks want a coordinator that knows how to win, Hall is a five time Grey Cup winner, including winning four as a defensive coordinator, and one as a player. This experience is invaluable for a team trying to build themselves into a perennial contender.
Corvey Irvin, Defensive Line Coach Montreal Alouettes
Coach Irvin is a former 3rd round NFL Draft pick selected by the Carolina Panthers 93rd overall in the 2009 selection process. He would go on to play nine seasons professionally. From 2009-2014 in the NFL in some capacity, and from 2014-2017 in the CFL. Spending six seasons in the NFL he bounced on and off of practice squads, appearing in 24 games. It was not until he ended up in the CFL that he really found the success he had hoped for.
Irvin did not immediately play when he was signed by the Calgary Stampeders. He began on the practice squad and ended up released by the team before he ever played in a game for them. He then signed with Montreal and finished the 2014 season with the Alouettes. In 2015 he became a factor on defense, appearing in 13 games collecting 11 tackles and 3 sacks.
Heading into 2016 he was allowed to leave via free agency and signed with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The year following the departure of Bob Dyce for Ottawa. During this season he played 18 games notching 27 tackles and 5 sacks, however the Roughriders opted not to re-sign him, and he would eventually sign with Winnipeg for 2017. This was a short-lived stint as he would ultimately retire before the 2017 season.
In 2019 he re-emerged as the defensive line coach for Concordia University, a position he would hold for 4 years. Irvin would join the Montreal Alouettes during the 2023 season. Under his guidance, the Al’s defense went on to produce 41 sacks during the 2023 regular season. During the playoffs they really got hot and produced 5 sacks in the Semi-Final, and another 4 during the Grey Cup securing victory along the way.
In 2024 they fell off a bit in the sack department collecting 34. During the playoffs they managed to add just 1 sack in a 30-28 defeat on the doorstep to back-to-back Grey Cup appearances. With that in mind, Irvin is available to interview right away.
Will Fields, Secondary/Co-Defensive Coordinator Toronto Argonauts
Will Fields was a long time CFL defensive back, who began his coaching career over 15 years ago now. During that long career he has made a name for himself when it comes to identifying and developing talent. He also has a short background in arena football which has helped sculpt his vision for building his unit.
Looking back at his career as a player, he spent eight seasons in the CFL, and AFL before retiring and entering the coaching realm. He initially spent five seasons coaching a Christian School not far from where he attended college in Houston. He initially re-entered the CFL as a scout with the BC Lions in 2013 but returned to coaching in 2014 with Simon Fraser. In 2015 he returned to BC this time as a coach. This began a long run of coaching secondaries, and helping players earn all-star bids along the way. After serving as an assistant defensive backs coach for three seasons. He would ultimately end up with Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2017 before being promoted to run the unit in 2018.
During these two seasons, he overlapped with Shawn Burke. In 2019 he moved on to Edmonton where he initially accepted the Assistant Defensive Backs position before resigning to take a job with the upstart XFL in 2020 following Jerry Glanville who had been his defensive coordinator with Hamilton to the Tampa Bay Vipers under another former CFL Coach Marc Trestman. Much of the 2018 Hamilton staff wound up in the XFL in 2020, including Head Coach June Jones, Linebacker Coach Robert Lyles, Offensive Line Coach Dennis McKnight, as well as Fields, and Glanville.
Unfortunately, covid 19 derailed the XFL in 2020, and left all of these men looking for jobs, and the CFL was forced to cancel it’s 2020 season further complicating the chances of these men landing on their feet. However, he would again find his CFL connections useful, landing with former CFL Coach Casey Creehan at Peru State College. This was his first opportunity to call defensive plays, although it lasted just two seasons. During his college offseason he would also serve as the Defensive Backs Coach for the Conquerors of The Spring League.
Finally in 2022 he returned to the CFL with the Toronto Argonauts as their Secondary Coach. During this stop he overlapped with Alex Russell currently the Assistant Director of US Scouting. He would win a Grey Cup in his first season with the Argos. In his first two seasons with the Argos, they compiled a 27-9 record. His finest work may have been overseeing the development of Qwan’Tez Stiggers, a player that never played college football, and had gotten his start in the Fan Controlled Football League in 2022.
In just one season with Fields, Stiggers was named CFL Most Outstanding Rookie, and a CFL East All Star, then entered the NFL Draft in 2024. Becoming the first player who was selected in the NFL Draft directly from the CFL in 25 years. In 2024 Fields added Defensive Co-Coordinator to his duties with the Argonauts, priming him for a future to coordinate his own unit in the future. In his first season in this role his team would go on to win another Grey Cup, his second in three seasons with Toronto. He could be the perfect candidate for Ottawa after winning his third Grey Cup, and second in three seasons.
